Montasio cheese, which originated around 1200 in the valleys of the Julian and Carnic Alps, is a mix of three worlds: the Alps, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Eastern Veneto. It is a cooked, semi-hard cheese made exclusively from cow’s milk produced in the production area, with a characteristic soft and delicate flavor that is balanced without excess.
Features
The paste of Montasio has a characteristic eye formation that is uniform over the entire section, with small, regular, shiny eyes on the inside (ptarmigan’s eye). In young Montasio, the rind is smooth, elastic and compact, light brown in color; the paste is compact white or straw yellow. As the aging period increases, the rind becomes drier and the paste becomes grainy and crumbly. Montasio cheeses are identified by the marks of origin, which are placed on the heel of the cheeses by the repetition of the words “Montasio” obliquely.
The Production
A quality cheese such as Montasio must be produced according to certain, very specific factors of typicality. The first fundamental factor is precisely the area of origin: Friuli, eastern Veneto in the provinces of Belluno and Treviso and partly the provinces of Padua and Venice. The second is milk, a factor that is closely linked to the environment, its climate, and its vegetation. Milk is turned into cheese using soft techniques that do not cause any particular upheaval to the original microbial and bacterial flora. This is done using raw, fresh milk that has not undergone vigorous treatment. The third is the adoption of soft technology to go along with the slow formation of the product. The fourth is the marking of the cheese at production, which guarantees its origin and compliance with all the characteristics stipulated in the specifications.
Four ways of being unique
There are four flavor nuances due to the different aging periods: – Fresco: aged from 60 to 120 days. With a soft and delicate taste, the paste is straw yellow and compact, the eyes are homogeneous, the rind is smooth and the flavor delicate; – Mezzano: aged from 5 to 10 months. Full-flavored and strong; – Stagionato: more than 10 months. Pleasantly flavorful; – Stravecchio: more than 18 months aged. Refined and tasty, excellent for grating; From Montasio Mezzano to Montasio Stravecchio, as time passes the paste becomes increasingly grainy and crumbly, the flavor more assertive and savory while the rind becomes firmer and darker.